Constant BSOD

J

Joe_coral

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
75
I've had my current setup for about 18 months now, and up until last week I'd never had a single problem or crash.
The last week it randomly crashed in the middle of playing a game (Rift) and since then it constantly BSOD and crashes

At first it would load up and was stable enough to browse the internet, but anything else would cause it to crash (usually with the memory_management message)

However now, I can't even get in to windows, it gets as far as the windows icon splash screen and crashes, every time (usually saying memory_management, but I have seen other error codes which I can't remember atm).
I ran the windows startup repair and that found no problems. I can't even get that to run now however, it loads the files and then crashes, every time (either memory_management or Unknown Hard Error) so I can't even reinstall Windows. I can't even get the PC to load in safe mode

System is Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium, AMD Phenom II X4 940 CPU, 650W Corsair PSU, 4gb DDR2 800 RAM, Radeon 4890 GPU.

I would like to be able to at least salvage all the music/photos/films I have saved on there, as I have about 70gb worth, however I see no way to get them off currently.

I am considering buying a new hard drive and a copy of Windows 7 and just starting from scratch, although I am reluctant to do this as I do not want to lose all my saved data.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
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My suggestion, seeing as it appears to be a memory error, is to run some sort of memory testing program. Im not sure if it's been superseded by anything but Memtest86+ used to be the standard. You'll need another computer to burn it to a CD (bootable) then you boot from it and run the tests.

What I would do is run one test with all of your ram installed. If it fails this test you will need to isolate if it's something on the board or the RAM, so take out all but 1 ram stick, run the test, if it fails, change slots until it doesn't fail or fails in all 4 (?) slots. Do that with all of your RAM. If none of the ram passes it's all bad (probably a bit unlikely) or something on your board or memory controller died. In my experience it has usually been the ram though.

To get your stuff off without fixing the computer you will need to take the harddrive out, install it (plug it in) into another computer (do not boot from this drive), then access it like another drive on that computer and transfer all of your stuff. Shouldn't be any issues with that.
 
Ok I'll give memtest a try. So I just download and burn the .iso file (mt420.iso) onto a CD and boot the PC from this?
 
That's all I did to get it to work, yeah :) Make sure it's burned such that you can boot from it and aren't just burning the iso file itself to the cd (i made that mistake the first time ><)
 
So I ran memtest, and after about an hour and a half of running there was approximately 950000 errors, so i'm guessing the problem is memory related!

Should my first step be to check the 2 sticks of RAM individually to see if its either of them causing the problem, or is it more likely to be software related? What are the odds that both RAM sticks could have become faulty at the same time?
 
thats a bad stick or sticks. Take out a stick and re-run memtest, if it fails try teh other stick. Then check to see if your memory is still under warranty and proceed.
 
Try to bump up the memory voltage and NB voltage, loosen the memory timings and lowering the memory ratio. The AMD memory controllers seem really picky about sharp memory settings, maybe it gives you enough time to boot again and save some data.
 
So I took out one of the RAM sticks, ran memetest for about 2 hours and 0 errors, so im guessing i struck lucky and pulled the bad RAM out first time? I'm using the PC now and it seems stable for now.

I will need to replace the bad RAM, so should I buy another single stick of 2gb to replace the 1 bad one, or buy 2 and replace both, or does it not make any difference?

Is there anything else I should be doing?
 
according to the newegg.com site it said they come with a limited lifetime warranty. You should definitely contact them before you do anything else.
 
I've just contacted the company I bought them from, they will exchange them no problem. The only problem is, because they came as a pair of 2, I will have to also remove the remaining good one to return in exchange for another pair of brand new ones, which will take up to a week, so I will be without PC for another week >.<

It also means I'll have to buy some more Artic Silver and some CPU cleaner as I will have to remove the CPU heatsink to get the other RAM stick out as it hangs over it >.<

Ah well, at least the problem is solved!
 
what cpu cooler are you using? Can you remove the fan only? If it's been quite a while since it was installed its probably a good thing.
 
I've got a Xigmatek Dark Knight which has been on the CPU since Sept '09. And it's the cooler itself which sits over the top of the RAM, not just the fan
 
ahh didn't think you had it pointing towards the top of your case :) most people have it facing the back of the case. I guess you have a fan in the top of your case?
 
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